1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to electronic devices and more particularly to communication devices with alert personalization capability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Historically, communication devices, such as cellular telephones and two way messaging devices, have had the ability to receive data and/or voice messages sent from one or more communication systems and perform standard functions in response to message or call receipt, such as storing the message, displaying the message, or alerting the user of receipt of the message or incoming call. The user is alerted of receipt of a new message, an incoming call, or missed incoming call by an audible, visual, or vibratory alert. Many communication devices today include caller identification capability in which an identification of the calling party is displayed when a call is received. Typically, the caller identification is a telephone number of the source of the incoming call. Some communication devices include a phonebook application which ties incoming caller identification telephone numbers to stored telephone numbers in the phonebook application and then displays the identification (such as caller's name) attached by the device user to that telephone number.
One drawback of the currently available technology is the inconvenience of viewing the display in order to identify the source of the incoming call. For example, when the device user is driving in an automobile, looking at the display of a cellular telephone or messaging device prior to answering a call can be distracting and potentially dangerous.
Some communication devices today provide functionality for unique alerts to be assigned to individual entries of a user's phone book. The device user manually assigns a different alert to each caller identification and stores the information in the phonebook. This can be time consuming and tedious, especially given that the phonebook size can be large and continuously changing.